Juneteenth Was Great Start But Was Not National Independence Day For All Slaves

 

We now have another federal holiday Juneteenth National Independence Day
To commemorate the day in June, 1865 that federal troops reached Galveston telling slaves that their slavery had gone away
At a time of Cancel Culture that seems to have no bounds, the end of slavery we should celebrate
A stain on our founding ideals that took our deadliest war and over 240 years to abate
Crippled the development of industry in the South where cotton became king
Requiring the work of thousands of slaves to the textile mills needed cotton to bring
All men were created equal but slaves were stripped of humanity to the status of chattel
The costliest conflict in our history with near a million dead from disease, captivity, accidents or shot or bombed on or near the fields of battle
Sadly, the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13^th removed only the physical chains
Jim Crow laws soon passed in the South sought to black civil rights strip or  contain
It took more than 100 years to the chains of segregation and Jim Crow chip away
Still room for improvement on pockets of discrimination but great progress to racism  allay
In a nation where the Blues find systematic racism in every nook and cranny
And Critical Race Theory preaches blacks are oppressed by all whites to need an omnipotent  federal nanny
We can rejoice that are first National Holiday after the celebration of the birthday of Martin Luther King
Is the creation of “Juneteenth National Independence Day” which freedom to the slaves of Texas would bring
If we are going to celebrate a day that freed all slaves from their physical chains
slaves, that day is not June 19 as slavery in Kentucky and Delaware was alive and well
True emancipation for all slaves in the United States would have to wait until ratification of the 13^th on December 6, 1865 which tolled the slavery bell
To nitpick the use of “National Independence Day” slavery on Indian nations in present day Oklahoma also continued until treaties banning it were signed
Words matter and as one nation we should have only one Independence Day which is why the 14 Reds who voted against the holiday because of its added name should not be maligned.

© June 19, 2021 The Alaskanpoet